Journal Sentinel community publications to be consolidated ‘Now’
staff to work out of downtown Milwaukee

By Katherine Michalets - Freeman Staff

August 18,
2017

WAUKESHA — Names of longtime weekly publications
produced by the Journal Community Publishing Group will
no longer be found on newsstands as part of a
consolidation the company has undergone, according to a
story posted on the Journal Sentinel’s website on
Wednesday.

The
weekly publications, such as Lake Country Reporter,
Oconomowoc Focus, Mukwonago Chief and Waukesha Now, will
be consolidated into seven zones that cover 13 metro
Milwaukee areas and will be inserted into the print
editions of the Wednesday Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
They also will only be available to subscribers of the
Journal Sentinel.

Also, the websites for the revamped Now publications
will be moved to the Journal Sentinel’s
JSOnline.com website, according to the article. And
all of the community newspapers will use the “Now” name.

The
new publication zones will be Lake Country Now (northern
and western Waukesha County); Waukesha County Now
(southern Waukesha County); West Now (Brookfield, Elm
Grove, Wauwatosa); Northwest Now (Germantown, Menomonee
Falls, Sussex); North Shore Now (Ozaukee County and
North Shore suburbs); South Now (Cudahy, Franklin, Oak
Creek, St. Francis, South Milwaukee); and Southwest Now
(West Allis, Greenfield, Greendale, Hales Corners).

George Stanley, editor of the Journal Sentinel, did not
return calls or emails before deadline seeking comments
on the changes. He was quoted in a BizTimes article saying
that the company’s approximately 30 Now staff members
will be based out of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
newsroom in downtown Milwaukee, and not its location on
Dolphin Drive in Waukesha.

“We
can fit them in one place now, most people can work
remotely most of the time and it doesn’t make sense to
keep that expensive separate building in Waukesha,”
Stanley told BizTimes. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
and Now Media Group are now part of the Gannett Co.
Inc., which also owns USA Today. Prior to its sale to
Gannett, the Journal Sentinel and Now Media Group were
owned by Scripps Co.